• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.94-103
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• 2023

The effects of carburizing pressure and gas ratio on vacuum carburizing properties (uniformity and surface characteristics) have been studied through the analyses of carbon concentration, hardness, surface color, surface roughness and type of carbon bonding. AISI 4115 steel specimens were carburized with various pressures (1, 5, and 10 Torr) at different locations (P₁, P₂, P₃, P₄, P₅, and P₆) inside a furnace held at 950 ℃. Since the carburizing pressure represents the density of the carburizing gas, it plays an important role in improving the carburizing uniformity according to locations in the furnace. As the carburizing pressure increased, the carburizing uniformity according to the sample location was improved, but the surface of the carburized specimen was discolored due to the residual acetylene gas, which does not contribute to the carburizing reaction. Therefore, the carburizing uniformity and surface discoloration have been improved by injecting acetylene gas (carburizing gas) and nitrogen gas (non-reactive gas) in a specific ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1018-1021
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• 2006

Powdered metal parts and components may be carburized successfully in a vacuum furnace by combining carburizing technology $VacCarb^{TM}$ with a hi-tech control system. This approach is different from traditional carburizing methods, because vacuum carburizing is a non-equilibrium process. It is not possible to set the carbon potential as in a traditional carburizing atmosphere and control its composition in order to obtain a desired carburized case. This paper presents test results that demonstrate that vacuum carburizing system $VacCarb^{TM}$ carburized P.M. materials faster than traditional steel with acceptable results. In the experiments conducted, PM samples with the lowest density and open porosity showed a dramatic increase in the surface carbon content up to 2.5%C and a 3 times deeper case. Currently the boost-diffusion technique is applied to control the surface carbon content and distribution in the case. In the first boost step, the flow of the carburizing gas has to be sufficient to saturate the austenite, while avoiding soot deposition and formation of massive carbides. To accomplish this goal, the proper gas flow rate has to be calculated. In the case of P.M. parts, more carbon can be absorbed by the part's surface because of the additional internal surface area created by pores present in the carburized case. This amount will depend on the density of the part, the densification grade of the surface layer and the stage of the surface. "as machined" or "as sintered". It is believed that enhanced gas diffusion after initial evacuation of the P.M. parts leads to faster carburization from within the pores, especially when pores are open . surface "as sintered" and interconnected . low density. A serious problem with vacuum carburizing is delivery of the carbon in a uniform manner to the work pieces. This led to the development of the different methods of carburizing gas circulation such as the pulse/pump method or the pulse/pause technique applied in SECO/WARWICK's $VacCarb^{TM}$ Technology. In both cases, each pressure change may deliver fresh carburizing atmosphere into the pores and leads to faster carburization from within the pores. Since today's control of vacuum carburizing is based largely on empirical results, presented experiments may lead to better understanding and improved control of the process.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.231-237
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• 2004

Vacuum carburizing continues to gain acceptance as an alternative to atmosphere carburizing particularly in the car industry. The advantages of low-pressure carburization over atmospheric gas carburization is not only the creation of a surface entirely free of oxide and the environmentally friendly nature of these methods but also an improvement in deformation behaviour achieved by combining carburization with gas quenching, a reduction in batch times by increasing the carburization temperature, low gas and energy consumption and the prevention of soot to a large extent. In present study, an improved vacuum carburizing method is provided which is effective to deposit carbon in the surface of materials and to reduce cycle time. Also LPC process simulator was made to optimize to process controls parameters such as pulse/pause cycles of pressure pattern, temperature, carburizing time, diffusion time. The carburizing process was simulated by a diffusion calculation program, where as the model parameters are proposed with help the experimental results and allows the control of the carburizing process with good accordance to the practical results. Thus it can be concluded that LPC process control method based on the theoretical simulation and experimental datas appears to provide a reasonable tool for prototype LPC system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.269-271
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• 2002

For the investigation of the hardness profiles and distortion characteristics of SCM415 steel, test pieces of SCM415 steel were gas and vacuum carburizing treated. The hardness profiles and distortion characteristics of vacuum and gas carburized SCM415 steel show different results. Vacuum carburizing can offer more improved hardness profiles than alternate methods of carburizing. Compared to alternate methods of carburizing, vacuum carburizing can offer improved mechanical properties and reduced cycle times of the process.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.211-216
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• 2010

Vacuum carburizing process is well known process for its environment-friendly, low-cost, high-quality characteristics, compared with gas carburizing. In this study, a research was carried out to develop a process of vacuum carburizing for essential components of automotive transmission that is difficult to control its distortion. As a result, vacuum carburizing process is superior to gas carburizing in terms of cost, environment and quality.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2020

The effects of the carburizing process on the sliding wear behavior of SCM420H steel have been investigated. In particular, the effects of grain boundary corrosion observed in the surface layer after gas carburizing and the effects of hardness of the carburized cases after heat-treatment on the sliding wear properties were examined. Pin specimens carburized by two methods (gas carburizing and vacuum carburizing) were tempered at two temperatures of 180℃ and 400℃ after oil-quenching, respectively. Sliding wear tests were carried out against heattreated SKH51 steel at several sliding speeds using a pin-on-disc type test machine. As results, it can be found that there is no difference in the wear behavior between the pins carburized using two methods. This implies that the grain boundary corrosion that formed in the surface layer after gas carburizing has no effect on the sliding wear behavior of carburized SCM420H steels. Additionally, there is no significant difference in the wear behavior between carburized pins tempered at 400℃ and at 180℃ after oil-quenching, regardless of the carburizing method. This is because carburized pins tempered at 400℃ have a troostite structure, which exhibits higher tribochemical reactivity even though its hardness is lower than that of martensite structure. In this respect, it can be considered that good wear resistance of carburized cases is maintained at least until the effective case depth.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.78-84
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• 2005

The development of eco-friendly low pressure carburizing system with high pressure gas quenching (LPC_GQ, 500kg/charge) led to new stage in the fundamental case-hardening treatments. This is due to its ability to provide tighter tolerances on the carburizing process with notable reductions in distortion of the carburized and hardened workpiece. This system is characteristics by high uniformity and reproducibility of heat treatment results, absence of an intergranular oxidation layer, carburizing of complex shapes, reduced cycle time, low operating costs, simplified production, eliminate post washing, and reduced grinding costs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1995.04b
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• pp.39-44
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• 1995

The gas nitro-carburizing treatment with the merits of carburizing and nitriding treatment is recently applied to transmission gears. the shafls of an engine oil pump and steering shafls. For all that, the researches of the gas nitro-carburizing treatment are short of the fatigue behavior and the evaluation of fatigue life. In this paer, it is examined for the effect of inclusions and hole defects with fatigue limit and the evaluation of the fatigue strengthaccording tothe hardness and resifualstress with the specimen of a notro-carburizing treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 1992

This content is a part of the results of the study on the development of the vacuum carburizing technology. In this study the vacuum carburizing furnace being used was the furnace that developed through the joint project between KIMM and Kyung-Pook Heat Treating Co. from June 1988 to Nov. 1990. And the used carburizing gas was the propane gas and the introducing methods of the gas applied two methods such as pulse and constant pressure. By this study we established the basis of the furnace manufacturing technology and of the processing technology in the vacuum carburizing. Above all in this work there are notable meanings in a viewpoint of the foremost research in home. Hereafter, we are going to industrialize the vacuum carburizing technology by improving the results of the present work and by developing the process for the mass production.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.971-978
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• 2012

Vacuum carburizing is supposed to be the superior process to the gas carburizing. However, the vacuum carburizing has the stage in which hydrocarbon gas is supplied into the furnace to be pyrolysis, and consequently the stable heat treatment is hard to achieve due to the soot from the hydrocarbon pyrolysis. Recently, many studies have been made which utilize acetylene gas to overcome this defects. In this paper, the carburizing and the diffusion periods have been selected based on the Harris experimental formula, and the mechanical properties of the vacuum carburized specimen have been compared with those of the gas carburized SCM415H specimen to identify the feasibility of the $CO_2$ free vacuum carburizing process. The result showed that the vacuum carburized materials used have no oxidization of the grain boundaries, and show the 29.8% higher effective hardness depth and the acceptable tensile strength.